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Saturday, 7 December 2013

Readers' recommended self-published authors

The Guardian ran a series recently to highlight some of the best English language self-published books. I had received a few emails from readers earlier in the year to say that they had nominated me and my genealogical mystery series, but I had thought little more of it, and I certainly didn't expect to get a mention. Then just yesterday someone informed me via my thread on the Kindle Users Forum that I had made the shortlist of around twenty authors from over 3300 entries. I am of course very pleased to have been mentioned, not least because signing with Amazon Publishing means I'm not going to be an independent author for much longer, so it's nice to end that phase on such a high note. Thank you Louise for pointing the article out to me, and thanks to everyone who took the time to write in to The Guardian to recommend my books.

Here's a link to the article if you'd like to read it and see the other shortlisted books/authors. The Guardian Books Blog

Other news

I've had a couple of weeks clear from the process of getting my existing books ready for their Amazon Publishing re-release next March, and during that time I've managed to add a healthy number of words to my new Jefferson Tayte mystery and move the story along. As you can see from the word count, I'm close to 70,000 words, which feels good. The proofs for my first three books have started to come in now though, so I expect I'll be working on them until Christmas, as well as getting the front and back matter and my author bio finalised. Around all that I'm going to work on the finer plot details for the remainder of book four so that I can hit the ground running come 2014 and make a sprint to the finish line. I'm really looking forward to that.

Audiobooks

I received an email from Simon Vance this morning to say that he's all set to start on the audiobook recordings for the series. He's going to be reading In the Blood over the weekend, then we're going to talk on Monday. It's fantastic to have the opportunity to talk to Simon about my books and characters, and I really can't wait to listen to the finished recordings.

About Me

Steve Robinson drew upon his own family history for inspiration when he imagined the life and quest of his genealogist-hero, Jefferson Tayte. The talented London-based crime writer, who was first published at age 16, always wondered about his own maternal grandfather--"He was an American GI billeted in England during the Second World War," Robinson says. "A few years after the war ended he went back to America, leaving a young family behind and, to my knowledge, no further contact was made. I traced him to Los Angeles through his 1943 enlistment record and discovered that he was born in Arkansas . . ." Robinson cites crime writing and genealogy as ardent hobbies--a passion that is readily apparent in his work. He can be contacted via his website www.steve-robinson.me or his blog at www.ancestryauthor.blogspot.com.